Surely this has nothing at all to do with their recent infiltration of a certain company.

I doubt there was 12 hackers working on it or that they would had busted them all within 24 hours. How about it's all the other bullshit "Anonymous" has been causing within one year, like the countless amount of DDoS against various companies and governments.

I heard some tinfoil hat types suggesting that lulzsec was actually fascist law enforcement types providing cover for legislation giving them more power to combat "cyberterrorism". They might be temporarily surprised, though they'll quickly rationalize that law enforcement just needed some fall guys.

I think going tin foil and yelling "Black Flag!" is going overboard, but you can bet that the feds had (have) members at core levels. Probably a mix of traditional undercover and turn-coats taken in unannounced arrests. I'm sure the same can be said about most widespread underground groups that give the feds the heebie-jeebies. And, frankly, I don't really have a problem with that.

Except that you can't bet on it. You can never disprove these conspiracy theories and they're rarely proven. What makes you so sure the feds are at the "core" levels? They're probably on 4chan, undoubtedly were following lulzsec on twitter (they had a twitter feed going, right?), and maybe listening in on IRC, and maybe that constitutes "the core," but whether they've turned any of the real brains behind it? No idea how likely that is.

Conspiracy theorists are impossible to argue with. No matter what evidence you show to the kooks they will just rationalise it away. Conspiracy theory derives from an inability to accept the chaotic nature of reality, that "random" events outside the control of any central power can utterly destroy someone's life. The belief in conspiracy theory is a belief that SOMETHING is actually in control: THE GOVERNMENT!

And if THE GOVERNMENT could just have its secrets revealed, or if it was destroyed, then all would be right with the world and peace and justice would reign.

Conspiracy theorists are impossible to argue with. No matter what evidence you show to the kooks they will just rationalise it away. Conspiracy theory derives from an inability to accept the chaotic nature of reality, that "random" events outside the control of any central power can utterly destroy someone's life. The belief in conspiracy theory is a belief that SOMETHING is actually in control: THE GOVERNMENT!

And if THE GOVERNMENT could just have its secrets revealed, or if it was destroyed, then all would be right with the world and peace and justice would reign.

The problem with all of this, what fuels the conspiracy theories, is that false-flag operations really do happen. The various governments destroy their own credibility by engaging in such things.

I would love to know how anyone (conspiracy theorist or non-conspiracy theorist) thinks they can evaluate this one way or another. I'd love to estimate the odds of government leaking a given secret, O=f/g (f the number of secrets leaked, g the number of secrets kept). We can reliably count f. But the idea that we can count g is self-contradictory.

Hemingway in his later days was generally considered a conspiracy theorist, believing the fbi was tracking and bugging him everywhere.

It took 70 years [slashdot.org] for it to be discovered he was actually right.

While I'm sure there are exponentially more false claims of conspiracy than legitimate ones, people who sound paranoid can be completely right sometimes. When governments can successfully keep it secret until enough generations have passed for all involved to be dead, it demonstrates the capability of easily destroying peoples lives and credibility (at the very least for the duration of their life).

Conspiracy theorists are impossible to argue with. No matter what evidence you show to the kooks they will just rationalise it away

You might say the same thing about people who make the blanket assumption that governments, corporations, and other organizations are all completely open and transparent, only operating in the light of day, and completely without hidden agendas of any kind. But that seems at least as idiotic, doesn't it? Maybe even more so, since it requires nothing but blind trust and not the minimal considerations of motivation and plausible strategy that even the kookiest conspiracy theorist has to ponder.

Conspiracy theorists are impossible to argue with. No matter what evidence you show to the kooks they will just rationalise it away. Conspiracy theory derives from an inability to accept the chaotic nature of reality, that "random" events outside the control of any central power can utterly destroy someone's life. The belief in conspiracy theory is a belief that SOMETHING is actually in control: THE GOVERNMENT!

And if THE GOVERNMENT could just have its secrets revealed, or if it was destroyed, then all would be right with the world and peace and justice would reign.

In fairness, it's not just theory. There is ample evidence that News Corp conspired with Scotland Yard. It's not inconceivable that the FBI has a similar relationship with them, but there would need to be evidence.

Whilst I'm not agreeing with that theory per-se, I think the timing of Anonymous arrests have been very convenient. The problem is the people being arrested are almost certainly people who used LOIC without masking their IP at all.

I do think it's a little odd that each time a country has a big story relating to law enforcement the day before, the next day we get a story of "xx anonymous members arrested!"- last time it was SOCA, this time it's the whole NoW deal. Turkish police similarly did the same thing

I heard some tinfoil hat types suggesting that lulzsec was actually fascist law enforcement types providing cover for legislation giving them more power to combat "cyberterrorism". They might be temporarily surprised, though they'll quickly rationalize that law enforcement just needed some fall guys.

I would be surprised if these raids stopped that release. In fact I'll bet most of these guys raided are just dumb script kiddies who front in IRC, or ordinary people who have helped with LOIC and similar ops, and/or people who have had their systems compromised are being used a proxies/bots by real Anon/Lulz people.

That they are even tangentially related gives the feds an opportunity to make big headlines about raids to show that they are 'doing something' (TM) and they aren't incompetent and/or impotent by skill or distance/jurisdiction respectively.

The members of Anonymous are risking going to jail in order to reveal corruption in the government and corporations. You are saying these people are dumb for taking a risk to stand up for something they believe in. It's not dumb, it's courageous.

These guys getting tracked down was pretty much inevitable; much as the releases are going to be. There is no way that they managed to nab everyone, and there's no way that one guy has the only copy of all of the information sitting physically in his house.

*some guys getting tracked down*, knowing history of anon my money would say the people caught are more likely then not just idiots that booted up LOIC, odds are the ones that did any actual skilled work and actually captured any information on any group, are unidentified. That is always how anon has worked, throw out a huge mob of random people to the front lines, handful of actual skilled people sneak in the back door. The random mob is expendable, and yes there will be more of them when they get picked off.

Maybe so, but just like low-level drug gang soldiers, these people are going to be very, very helpful as they contemplate long prison sentences. Eventually the trail will lead to the people who matter. Most people don't realize it, but financial and computer crimes carry pretty hefty penalties. Some of these people are thinking "Oh, hacking ${evil_corporation_or_government_organization} sounds like fun. Even if I get caught, they'll probably give me probation." Yeah... probation after you finish your 20 year sentence. If you were going to risk this kind of time you would have been better off robbing a bank.

Reading your comment here, it is clear that you haven't wasted the time to research the philosophy / structure of the anonymous group. Which is a perfectly fine way to go about your life. You haven't missed out on much.

But to clarify the expected result of this raid, I thought it might be valuable for those unfamiliar with Anonymous to know that the group is entirely anonymous, even among members. The people who were captured would probably love to roll on others in order to avoid jail time. That is not a choice for them, however. This makes it an attractive mob to manipulate.

The feds will relish a day or two capturing headlines, pretending that "something" has been done to curtail these nefarious hackers. It's exactly as theatrical as the war on terror. At most they'll charge these individuals with possession of child pornography, as their browser cache is undoubtedly filled with thumbnails of illegal content inadvertently picked up while trawling 4chan. It's quite doubtful the FBI has captured anyone of significance.

Oh, they'll finger someone; because sometime soon, there will be a paper handed to them, across a desk in a dark room, and it'll have names on it, of people and aliases of those who this particular individual may or may not have interacted with... But it won't matter. The truth never does, during a witch hunt. A lawyer will urge his client to sign it; because it's either a slap of the hand, or utter ruination of your life when you deal with these sort of folk, and the men with guns who act in their stead.

Contact your representatives and tell them that "current laws are more than enough for law enforcement to track down and arrest hackers." You know more about technology than your politicians do (probably) so be an informed and active citizen and let them know your thoughts about the matter. Get some of your friends and neighbors to do the same thing. Then, when the issue comes up they might just listen to what you said.

Yes, whack a mole is a fun game and will keep them in overtime for years to come.

ROTFL yes very effective. I bet catching 12 people, who may or may not have been anyone of real interest, will shut the anonymous collective right down. Yup this is it for them lol.

They made some points biting at the anonymous hand. Bitchslap is now pending. Now the FBI moved, its time for their betters to make their move.

There's punishment, and then there's deterrence. How many of those participating in Anonymous thought there could be no repercussions or consequences from participating in Anonymous? I'd wager there's less than before.

No one realistically expects the FBI to track down every single participant, but if they manage to get enough to affect the risk/reward perception, it still works.

I think what the OP and you don't get is the definition of "nationwide". It means across a nation which is true in this case. Now you've associated to mean "large in scope or scale" which isn't the exact meaning.

I think you're missing the definition of "crackdown" ("crack down: to repress, to take strong measures against"). Arresting 12 members of Anonymous is not going to repress them, and is not a strong measure.

Eeh, typical Newsie hyperbole. I heard an NPR story this morning about Somali kids from Minneapolis going off to join Al-Shabab that described them as "leaving in droves," then went off to say there were 24 of them. I thought to myself, "That is one drove, max."

Ok, ok. I confess - I'm part of Anonymous and I'm willing to cut a deal. I'll roll over on everyone. You know those pseudonyms in the IRC channel you've been monitoring and caught me in? That's the rest of them... *sob*

You have to wonder just how many people are going to have to be arrested until the grunts get the picture and bail.Anon "We are a Hydra chop off a head and two grows back" == You are expendable. Grunts are cheap and made by unskilled labor.AKA it sucks for you if you are the head that gets chopped off.

I suspect that it depends on what happens to them. Only the arrests, and the occasional fairly high-profile sentencings, make news.

If many of the arrests turn out to be made in error and quietly dropped, that would create a greater apparent than real risk. Similarly, if many of the grunts are vaguely disgruntled minors whose parents are glad that they aren't out on the street getting into real trouble, the legal repercussions might be fairly slight and sealed at majority.

As long as they are under 18 you are right. Over 18 and even an arrest looks bad on your record. A slap on the wrist and a few weeks jail time can mean you don't get a lot of jobs. Of course they will not get anyone and the very young and very stupid think it could never happen to them.Like Anon says "They are expendable" so rush that machine gun nest it will not get all of you.

How many people executed did it take before the various resistance movements in the Second World War gave up? Why are there still dissidents in China, Cuba, Iran, etc. when they keep being imprisoned?

If you really believe in a cause it doesn't matter how many "examples" are made, in fact as Syria is finding out, the more "examples" you make the more martyrs the people have to avenge.

While the stakes of Anon as a political movement are not as high as the suppression of dissidents in totalitarian states, Anon has become undeniably a political movement, and there are idealists willing to sacrifice themselves for political ends born every minute. Let me tell you something as a former young idealist: it isn't real until it happens to you. You imagine that the purity of your principles makes you invincible until the establishment turns its gaze on you and actually does something.

However once an idea gains enough momentum and there enough people involved, actually acting against them becomes politically more difficult in Western democracies generally. At a certain threshold law breaking becomes civil disobedience, and if you end up fighting masses of people in the streets you've already lost. It will be only a few election cycles before those chickens come home to roost.

I'm not saying this is necessarily going to happen, but I do challenge your interpretation of the situation as overly simplistic and in denial of historical scenarios of similar sociological pressures.

You are making the fundamental mistake of assuming that bored teenage fashionista script kiddies represent, or are even able to meaningfully describe any sort of "cause" other than "it's cool to be part of a group that causes some shit to happen that makes it on the news."

There's no there there. It's not a political movement, except for the possibility of the idiots who have been arrested being classical "useful idiots" in the service of someone else who has preyed upon their boring existence and broadband connection to use them as weak-willed meatbots who make the mistake of thinking they're being cool. You are way over analyzing things. It really is for the lulz, as it turns out. These are just your basic punks. Vandals who think they're impacting The Man, or at least say so, because that babelicious Goth girl in their algebra class seems to nod her head when she hears tales of angsty rebellion from nerds using Mom's FiOS pipe as meat puppets for lefty activists.

When you look at the targets like Arizona law enforcement, and the reasons including specifically retribution for Arizona Senate Bill 1070, and say it's not a political movement, I have to question the rationale of your perspective. Just because you don't like it or don't agree with it and want to malign or dismiss those who are part of it does not negate objective facts about acts and actors.

Political Targets + Political Reasons = Political Movement, like it or not.

just because you don't think their message is significant (information wants to be free, internet is for lulz, corruption is bad) doesn't give you the authority to define their actions as non-political, hell, you could successfully argue that the KKK were a political movement.

i think you're just over-simplifying what politics IS.

corrisive flailing about in order to avoid having to actually think, act, or (especially) produce anything.

and yet are able to out wit "security professionals", "government agencies" & "corrupt regimes".... for FREE.

Wow, and you accuse me of making bad analogies? The mafia was and is founded on loyalty. The early mafia was virtually impenetrable for this very reason, and it wasn't just the dons and the capos and soldati, it was the communities they operated in. Whether you're talking about the depressed, corrupt, and unstable home country that was Italy and Sicily at the turn of the century through beginning of the Cold War, or the socially outcast Italian and Sicilian immigrant communities in the US during the same pe

Having solved all other problems, FBI agents today busted down the doors of supersized geeks with cheeto-stained fingers living in their mother's basements. A spokesperson said "these 'hacker' types represent the single biggest threat to the american way of life, and must be stopped." Elsewhere in America infrastructure continued to crumble into dust, fall into rivers, or start on fire as unemployment continues to rise, many urban centers are now 3rd world status, and white-collar criminals are seen driving cars made out of hundred dollar bills and dead immigrants.
The FBI insists that random vandalism of websites is a far worthier objective for them than catching terrorists, rich bastards who steal millions from retirement funds, and the occasional rapist.

Nah, you get what the ignorant stammering majority choosing between a turd and a douche, if they could even be arsed to waddle down to the polling place and take 5 minutes within a 12 hour window on a Tuesday out of fear the other guy might win.

That's a moronic refrain, and you're a jackass for repeating it. The real truth of the matter is that we get what we DON'T vote for... meaning it's the intentions and behavior of which we AREN'T told before the election that we actually get in the end.

The problem, of course, is that we have virtually no useful criteria whatsoever to identify the unethical self-interested bastards before they take office. Even mr1911, who smugly implies that he's never ever voted for a rotten candidate himself, has no frea

Except by the time we are allowed to vote for them, it's a choice between fast painful death, or a painful fast death. Maybe a death that is fast and painful? Hey, how about a death that is painful and fast.

Sure, it may look like redundancy the way I wrote it, but they're still considered 'democrats', 'republicans', and so forth.

The idiom was intentional.

When every single political figurehead is corrupted in one form or another, with very few, if any exceptions, it frankly doesn't matter who you pick. Wh

I would rather they enforce the laws I dont agree with in the hopes that doing so will draw attention to them and promote change then to have the law enforcement officials decide which laws they should and should not enforce.

Anonymous has been hacking into enough of the right kind of computers that it was a given they were going to get Federal attention. It takes a while to pull together a coordinated series of raids, so it's extremely unlikely the Sun (newspaper) exploit had any bearing on these arrests.

In the UK, the police wait nearby and move in to conduct the raid while they are in the middle of the act, so they have evidence it was them, and not a trojan or an insecure wifi router that did it; so it is quite possible that thesun.co.uk exploit was the trigger for them to move in on their pre-planned raid.

Some people may find this strange, but society generally doesn't like it if you harbor criminals. Hopefully the FBI has the brains to realize the IRC owners are not always the hackers, but that doesn't mean that the IRC owners are in the clear.

You've got it precisely backwards. It's Anonymous that fancies themselves the self-described law and who are deployed by interested parties to interfere with someone else's daily lives. It's angry lefties that egg Anonymous on to virtually lynch people with whom they disagree. Get it straight. The FBI are the historical marshals or the military, and Anonymous/Lulzsec are playing the role of self-appointed posse/executioners doing the bidding of their idealogical masters. They get paid in the currency they

and a lot more concerned about the former army head that's now the head of the intelligence secret police. If any other country made that kind of link, we'd be questioning their position on civil rights....

there is no way in hell that arrests et al can do anything to anonymous.

you arrest 100 people in usa. you arrest 100 people in france. you arrest 100 people in germany.

what about the millions in china, russia, india ? how are you going to 'arrest' or 'scare' them ? morons.

this is no more than a publicity stunt to satiate the bastard that is murdoch, since his ass is on the line now. and fbi and other government organizations in u.s. are making evident who they are serving. they didnt conduct a nationwide raid when all kinds of govt. organizations were attacked by anon.